John B. Kotmair, Jr. rests from his labors

America has lost a true hero and patriot, John Baptist Kotmair, Jr., 83, of Westminster, Maryland, who passed from this world on December 13, 2017.

He is survived by his wife, Nancy L. (Blunt) Kotmair, two daughters, two sons, 10 grandchildren, 17 great-granchildren, and many American patriots who will always remember his unremitting efforts on their behalf.

John served in the Navy for four years and with the Baltimore Police for eight years. He was a custom home builder during the 1970s, served as a patriot in federal prison camp in the early 1980s, and was the founder and fiduciary of Save-A-Patriot Fellowship from 1984 onward.

Most patriots will remember John Kotmair as one of the strongest voices of the tax honesty movement, fearlessly striving to educate the public about the limited application of the federal income tax. He and his wife Nancy took to the road for two and a half years, visiting patriots and recruiting for the Patriot Network and then for the National Patriot Association. In addition to founding Save-A-Patriot Fellowship, he was founder and fiduciary of Liberty Works Radio Network Fellowship.

Do Courts Have Law-Making Power?

Attorney Michael Peroutka - Patriot, and founder of Institute on the Constitution - has released this catchy tune to help people understand the inherent limits of the judicial branch in our system of government. For a detailed explanation of this principle, download a copy of this informative booklet, written by Liberty Works Radio Network founder John B. Kotmair.

Beginning this week we are archiving most of our LWRN produced programs on YouTube so you and your friends can enjoy past episodes. We are placing currently produced program there at the moment but we intend to post older programs there eventually. Just click on the YouTube image at the left and you will be taken to our YouTube page. Enjoy.

...the Rand Paul that we were all hoping for – someone who would stand up to the War Party and refute their propaganda – is no more, if he ever existed in the first place. Instead of refuting the lies he’s joining in the telling of them – and in doing so, he’s crossed the Rubicon as far as libertarians and all those who oppose war with Iran are concerned.

The United States already has by far the per capita largest prison population of any developed country but I am probably one of the few Americans who on this Independence Day would like to see a lot more people in prison, mostly drawn from politicians and senior bureaucrats who have long believed that their status makes them untouchable, giving them license to steal and even to kill. The sad fact is that while whistleblowers have been imprisoned for revealing government criminality, no one in the federal bureaucracy has ever actually been punished for the crimes of torture, kidnapping and assassination committed during the George W. Bush and Barack H. Obama presidencies.

Editor: The following article illustrates the kind of shoddy writing that passes for journalism today.

or Questions About Sunday Times Snowden Story

The Sunday Times has a front page story out today claiming that the Chinese and Russian governments have somehow managed to obtain National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden's trove of documents. The story is sourced from anonymous UK government officials who make a series of significant allegations, unfortunately backed up with zero evidence. It's worth going through some of the key points of the story to cast some critical scrutiny on the central claims and to raise a few questions about them:

1) "RUSSIA and China have cracked the top-secret cache of files stolen by the fugitive US whistleblower Edward Snowden...according to senior officials in Downing Street, the Home Office and the security services."

The following was from a recent email communication from Steve Silverman of Flex Your Rights.

On Tuesday the Court held in Rodriguez v. U.S. that suspects cannot be detained beyond the scope of a routine traffic stop for the sole purpose of performing a dog sniff. The 6-3 ruling is indeed a big win for the 4th Amendment. But our old friend and former-Flex Associate Director Scott Morgan emailed me a note about why this ruling is particularly special.

Hey Steve,

Great ruling today! Of course, everyone's going to talk about the rarity of the Court upholding the 4th Amendment these days. What I noticed (and hope more people see) is that this case only happened because the suspect asserted his rights by refusing the dog sniff. It's a point I used to make frequently in the Flex Blog that SCOTUS rulings limiting 4th Amendment protections tend to arise from situations where the suspect did not assert their rights (e.g. Florida v. Bostick). Yet here's a case where the suspect did flex their rights, and look at the outcome! If anyone wonders how asserting your rights makes a difference, well ... here you go.

Cheers, Scott

Great point, Scott! Anytime suspects fail to clearly invoke their 4th Amendment rights, their defense is confined to the more difficult path of articulating other procedural 4th Amendment violations. Because of the relative weakness of such arguments, courts will often find that police acted in “good faith” by executing a search they believed to be lawful. This sets bad precedent expanding the scope of legal police searches.

However, when citizens clearly assert their rights, they empower the courts to rule in their favor by setting a higher evidentiary standard necessary to override their refusal. In other words, there’s a greater likelihood for a 4th Amendment victory – which is likely to set good precedent limiting the scope of legal police searches.

I don’t know if Dennys Rodriguez has seen our videos, but when police asked him to wait around until a drug dog could sniff his vehicle, he correctly refused. If more citizens are empowered to do the same – we’ll get better cases, better rulings, and a stronger 4th Amendment.

If you thought fractional banking was bad wait until you see Fractional Voting!

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